Very Gneiss end to a day

WikidKriket being a good sport and detouring for an Earth Cache in downtown Ann Arbor. After 12 hours of shopping during our annual Sister Shopping Day, she appreciated a cache she could sit on.

Very Gneiss GC5XN18

Bird Hills Cache GC1AB2

Ooh, I've been wanting this one for quite some time!  Bird Hills Cache is an oldie near Ann Arbor.  It's a triple threat: A Jasmer filler (September 2001), a D/T 3/4 4-stage Multi, and a Historic Cache of Washtenaw County. After other plans fell through Sunday morning, TaGeez and I decided we needed to cruise west and have an adventure!

I must admit that I went with a little trepidation.  This was the closest 09/01 cache, and it had MANY DNF's of late.  Later another experienced cacher told me he had driven 2x from Toledo and still never found stage 1.  Another posted a log that it took him 6 tries!

Luckily, we had better luck.  Well, not sure if it's luck.  TaGeez and I are a Hell of a team when it comes to finding tough caches.  We really, really do compliment each other.  My analytic mind and his dogged determination.  Neither of us mind getting dirty and we're very bull-headed -- no cache shall go unfound!

I won't bore you with a play by play.  If you'd like to read it in case you give it a go, you can find my log here. I thought we were in trouble at the very first stage (walking in circles because the GPSr wouldn't settle, lost our pen before we got there), but it turned out to be a fabulously successful mile walk (not kidding - it really was "up hill - both ways!")  The terrain rating fit.

I will share with you the end of my log, though.  I think this is the funniest bit:

Off to the final. This was a vastly different terrain from the first 3 stages. I don't want to give too much away, but it was muddy, wet and buggy. TaGeez hurdled the creek (landing in ankle-deep mud), trying to close the gap of the last 60 feet. I moseyed to the right, hoping I could give him directions from my bank. As I settled on a log my iPhone displayed the final as 10 feet away! A twist of fate that he directed me to the final, visible from his bank!

What a hoot!  After a brief break (it was horribly humid), we tiredly (and doggedly) walked the (very) hilly path a mile back to the car, silly grins on our faces.

   

We celebrated with the most fabulous dinner at the Blue Tractor BBQ & Brewery on Washington Street (try to smokey BBQ and the mustard-based BBQ sauce - WONDERFUL!).